The present invention relates to a touch screen input apparatus for a chip mounter, and more particularly, to an apparatus having a plurality of touch screens, a chip mounter including the same and a method for controlling the chip mounter.
A chip mounter is an apparatus for mounting different-sized chip components on a printing circuit board (PCB). Control of the chip mounter requires an input of a numeral or a letter. The input apparatus includes a keyboard, a touch screen, etc.
In a touch screen method, a letter, a numeral, or a switch is displayed on a monitor screen. When an operator touches a desired portion of the display with his or her finger, a touch panel and a touch controller which are installed in the vicinity of a monitor screen detect the coordinate of the touched portion and recognize the input content, thus obtaining the same effect as in using a keyboard or a switch as the input apparatus.
A conventional touch screen input apparatus uses only one touch screen and a chip mounter employing the apparatus is difficult to operate when a mounting line thereof is long. For example, in a chip mounter such as a surface mounting device (SMD) line having a length of 10m or more, when an error is generated on the chip mounter, the operator must turn around the line and go up to a touch screen in order to solve the error, which causes time loss and inconvenience of manipulation.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional touch screen input apparatus includes: a controlling portion 10 which is operated by a predetermined program; a monitor controlling portion 12 for generating a video signal corresponding to a screen to be displayed on a monitor 16 according to an instruction of the controlling portion 10; a buffer 14 for supplying the video signal output from the monitor controlling portion 12 to the monitor 16; a touch panel 18 attached to the monitor 16, for detecting a touched coordinate of a display screen, converting the coordinate into an electrical signal and outputting the converted signal; a line driver 20 for transmitting the electrical signal output from the touch panel 18; and a touch controlling portion 22 for receiving the electrical signal transmitted by the line driver 20, converting it into a touch coordinate, and providing the result to the controlling portion 10. In general, a touch screen is constituted by the touch panel 18, the line driver 20 and the touch controlling portion 22.
The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a monitor and a touch panel attached thereto, so that a chip mounter can be controlled only from the place where the monitor 16 is positioned. Therefore, when a process line is long, the capability of operating the chip mounter is lowered.